there's always a bull market somewhere. i promise to try to find good evening. this is "the kudlow report." we have only muss news from all over the country. starting with the budget crisis in washington. we learned just a few hours ago

that not only is the fiscal cliff deadline on new year's eve, we are going to hit the debt ceiling on the very same day. we are about to go to washington for a live report. now to national weather. deadly storm slamming the midwest and the south now hitting the northeast. this is all coming just as millions of americans are waiting to take flights important the holidays. suburban new york newspaper chooses to publish the names and addresses of thousands of private citizens who have legal gun permits. can the mainstream media still claim not to hate all gun owners after a stunt like this? "the kudlow report" starts right now. let's get the latest on the snag on the fiscal cliff talks and surprise news we are going to reach the debt ceiling in days instead of just a few months. john harwood has the details. what's going on? >> not a whole lot of actions going on. although there have been some developments. let me bring our viewers up to date on those.

first of all, treasury secretary geithner this afternoon announced the united states would hit the statutory debt limit on monday. that's new year's eve. that's part of an effort to pressure congress to act to raise the debt limit which may or may not be direct limb reply indicated in the fiscal cliff talks but it is relevant to the larger issue of debt and deficits. the treasury can move money around in certain ways to extend the point where we actually reach a crisis for probably a couple of months. but this is an early warning sign. secondly, republicans in the house sent word to democrats in the senate, white house, it is your turn now. we acted to put off the fiscal cliff several months ago with a bill that without objection tend all of those bush tax rates into the future and would turn off the sequester by switching defense cuts over to domestic programs. democrats, of course have no intention of doing that. especially after president obama won the election. senate democratic leadership aide tells me that will remains

a 50/50 chance we will get a mini deal temporary extension of tax cuts under $250,000 before the january 1 deadline when we would go over the cliff. will are no assurances of that. a white house official told me as president obama prepares to fly back to conduct and participate in the negotiations at the end, there has been no progress over the holiday weekend. michelle, i'm afraid that people who are looking for a deal and looking for a deal by december 31, all hope is not lost. it is not looking good at the moment. >> let's go back to this hitting the debt ceiling on monday. we learned of this because treasury secretary tim good night mother sent a letter to the honorable harry reid majority leader. and that's where he outline it is fact that in three business days, the summit government is going to run out of borrowing capacity. john, if there were a treasurer in a business who went to their boss and said by the way, three business days, the working capital account dies and as a result, you are not going to

make payroll next week, that person would be fired. we get three days notice about hitting the debt ceiling? that seems absurd to me. >> it is not a surprise.rise we have known we were coming to this point and there are two months more -- geithner estimated in that letter that the ways in which the federal government can manage money will give about would months worth of head room, possibly even longer. february or march or -- where we really get to the -- rubber hits the road on that issue. so -- this is not a shock to anybody in government but the publication of this letter and the elevation of the issues in attempt was done in 2011. there was an early moatfication by treasury this was about to happen, trying to get congress to move in a -- interest didn't work then. we will see if it works now. >> defaulting on legal obligations which is another way to confuse the mainstream media that does not understand thinking finances and seem to think that that means

automatically not going pay our debts in some way. makes it purposely confusing. john, thank you so much. john harwood, thank you. with this debt ceiling news, tim geithner is grossly incompetent or bending the numbers. how else could he have been so far off on the mark? that's my opinion. not john's. joining us now to discuss democratic strategist jimy williams. let me start with you. what do you think of this whole situation? is this politics by timothy geithner, secretary geithner? >> it is politics on every side. what is so frustrate sing this letter clearly underscores what many americans already know. we have a budget crisis because we have a spending crisis. while the talking heads on tv go on about tax cuts for the rich and we get them, will we not get them, had is about spending and have to address spending now. >> when you read his moats, the -- outline that he sends to harry reid, he says the government is spending $100 billion more per month than what it brings in.

i mean, it is really incredible. what does this mean for the fiscal cliff discussions? >> well, i don't think it really means a whole lot. i think it is -- sort of the white house's way, treasurer's way, of putting extra pressure on the people in the building behind us. by the way, none of them are there. i'm not sure that's really going to work, frankly. and -- i -- john, our colleague john harwood is exactly right. this is not a surprise. we knew this was coming. the question that it is, you know, three days -- thee business days, as you say before, the actual deadline itself, that's disconcerting. but -- again, it is not surprising. i don't think it has any -- will peak the negotiations at all, frankly. not at all. >> what about the secretary's use of this phrase -- the country would otherwise default on its legal obligations. i think he purposefully use this phrase default to confuse the public and -- during the last debt ceiling debate we had the same confusion as if the u.s. government would not pay interest on its debts.

have -- you know perfectly well will is about a million things. i have been in the country where they ran out of borrowing capacity and managed important several years to survive without that borrowing capacity. there's a million things you can do before. you don't pay your debt on the u.s. treasuries before you stop paying social security, before you do lots of other things. is he purposefully trying to elevate this to a situation that frightens people? >> in many ways -- this is like the mayan calendar. they said the world would end december 21. we are all still here. the fiscal cliff negotiations and the debts limit thing are not the end of the world and we will figure it out. the most important thing to keep in mind is long term. we want to have a healthy fiscal situation. we have to have a healthy economy. we have to address growth. here's something else that is -- totally missing from this conversation. >> jimmy? >> understand that the executive branch is required under federal law to notify the legislative branch that, fact, they are going to come up against the deadline, precisely why it is -- >> uses the phrase default.

we are not going -- the u.s. government isn't going pay its debts. we are going to be like greece. that was -- everybody -- both sides, by the way, republicans and democrats, both used the phrase default. you know perfectly well how it works in the government. you can make choices. >> i hate to break the news to you but -- i don't think anyone other than watching cnbc anyone actually cares and nobody believes the federal government will not pay social security or other debts. >> are you kidding me? i think they do. that's what they start with. right? start with the social security checks aren't going to go out. then -- what do people do, call their congressmen? the elderly get frightened. they think they won't have their weekly paychecks. >> this would not be the first time anyone from the executive branch tried to scare senior sit sense what do we do? we are going over the cliff. do you think we are going over cliff? >> i talked to the speaker's people today. bottom line is the speaker did remarkably smart. he didn't bring his bill up because he didn't have the votes and then sent every one of his members home so they could not come on tv and beat the hell out

of him. bottom line, the senate was always going to come up with a deal. the question becomes is what is it and does mcconnell, senate minority leader actually let senator reid get a bill off the floor of the united states senate and -- by the end of the week or saturday or sunday. if that's the case, that's fine. guess what. it doesn't matter what the senate comes up with. the house is still not going to pass it. john boehner can't. he just can't pass a bill off his floor with a majority democrats and 20 republicans. >> the house already voted to extend all of the bush tax cuts. >> and the senate -- >> house leaders are right to say the ball is in the senate's court. until they act we can't know -- what kind of deal we come up with. >> the ball is always in the senate's court. that's how it works. >> you are both argue being process. here is what i don't understand. i stay to democrats that come on, what p the republicans voted to extend taxes on everybody that you want, would you means test social security and medicare?

the vast majority say oh, no, no, no, no. >> not this democrat. i would absolutely support it. >> unfortunately you are not in congress. >> you are right. >> i talked to republicans. i said, listen, if tomorrow the democrats had an epiphany and decided representative ryan planes for making medicare a voucher system were the best thing to do, would you vote to raise taxes on millionaires and have them? they say no. i mean -- >> you can't get anywhere with these two. >> we are going over the cliff. >> five days left and people are asking, will there be a deal or no deal? more important question and jimmy referred to this is what kind of deal? there are worse things than make nothing deal a bad deal would be much worse. >> all right. great to have you. enjoyed it. >> happy new year. >> i love the bow tie. good to see. >> did you thank you. now to the winter storm sweeping across the country. the weather channel's kelly cass joins us now with the details. >> good evening. we are still dealing with a

winter storm that's bringing blizzard conditions at times. lot of wind blowing the snow behind and we are talking one to two feet of snow accumulating in polices like cleveland and on over into the buffalo area where we have a snowfall deficit in buffalo for the year we are down shtwo feet. we are making a department in the snow drought. lot of folks depend on the snow for certain businesses like snowplowing businesses. then we have rain, plain old rain around new york city. at times you have seen snow mixing in. not expecting much by accumulation. by friday lingering snow showers across northern parts of new england. if you are doing travel through syracuse watch out for reduced visibility. attention turns to the next storm that we will be tracking across the country. informative stage ace cross the west. we are going to pull in some moisture from the gulf of mexico. developing low looks like this on friday bringing rain showers to little rock and even some thunderstorm down around mobile, alabama, where just yesterday, of course, we have that tornado touch down. then the low will move to the

coast and we are likely to see snow from new york back towards pittsburgh and even cincinnati and plain old rain showers from norfolk all the way down through atlanta and florida. keep that in mind if you are doing any travel and along i-95, winds will be picking up with this one as well. and as we head towards sunday, a blustery day for places like boston, your high of 29 degrees and buffalo, we got the bills at home playing football and it is going to be quite cold with temperatures in the upper 20s and still lingering snow showers out there as well. back to you. >> football in 29-degree weather. awful. thanks, kelly. kelly cass from the weather channel. this winter storm paralyzing a lot of businesses. not as much as massive port strike would if no deal is made before this saturday. some are calling it the port's cliff. that's not the only outrage coming from the unions this week. we are going to discuss that next. free market capitalism, best path to prosperity. this is something they learned the hard day the american people

are tired of the status quo. >> who are you going to vote for? >> definitely not this guy. >> you know your money got him elected last time. >> i didn't give that guy a dime. >> yeah, you did. our union gave him a big chunk of your dues money. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios

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breaking news now from the asian markets. japan's nikkei rising to its highest level since march of 2011. 21-month high. hope for actions from the central bank there. year-end bonus for big labor. national labor relations board stripped more protection for workers that don't want their monday wrip spent on politics. you don't knowones are yielding huge power in another way as the clock is ticking on the threatened strike that could shut down every port from maine to the texas gulf coast. once again, unions versus capitalism. here now is vincent, director of labor policy. good to have you here, vincent. >> thanks important having me on. >> so -- do i understand this correctly? if you are in a state that doesn't have right-to-work laws, you join a company that has a union shop and you have to pay dues and join the union.

the money you spend on politics, i don't have to pay for that. has that changed now? is that something the labor relations board has done. make it a lot tougher to say i don't want to pay that. >> it has. one more example of the national labor relation board putting union leadership and big labor ahead of the interest workers. you were talking about unions versus business or versus capital. this is unions versus workers. this is workers that disagree with their unions so fundamentally that they want to go through a very burdensome opt-out process and not pay for the union's politics. they really only get to save 10% to 20% of the dues money but they go through this process because they don't want to fund politics. they disagree with. the nlrb made it that much harder with their decision earlier this month. >> what was in the decision, sbhg that they don't necessarily -- unions don't necessarily have to provide

auditing that proves how much they spent on what and provide it to the workers? is my understanding correct on that. >> yeah. the nlrb is -- infinite wisdom has now said that unions still has to give the workers an audit but they don't have to prove the accuracy of the audit. what the workers were saying in the -- nurses nlrb case, we want a letter from an independent auditor saying that these calculations of how much the union spends on politics versus collective bargain ring accurate. the nlrb said no, you don't need that. the union can now say well, yeah, we spent had money on cookies and cupcakes while we were negotiating a contract, not on politics, and -- the worker basically just has to take the union's word for it. >> unions have a history of being very honest. i don't know quite what you are so worried about. talk to me about this situation. the fiscal cliff but there is another deadline approaching right now as well that all the ports along the east coast, from maine to the gulf coast, could shut down because of union

actions. explain. >> if the unions go on strike -- you see this a lot like the longshoremen union where they can essentially hold commerce hostage by going on strike and not letting ships dock and unload at the ports. they have month one to unload and then -- that -- that -- those goods are stuck at port and can't get to market. >> yeah. huge impact on the commerce of the country. also on the economy. what are these unions want? what's at issue in the particular case? >> you know, i'm not exactly sure. i have to go for the contact again. >> good to see you. thanks important joining us. >> thanks for having me on. stocks may not have moved that much today but it was a major day in the oil trade. we are about to tell you why. crude finished at a would-month high. just days after larry interviewed cnn's host piers morgan a petition to have morgan deported spreading like wildfire on a white house website. we have those surprising details

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about tensions in the middle east. new security forces in the united arab emirates arrest ad terrorist cell for planning attacks on the region. contributing to crude's highest close since october 18. also fuelling the rise in crude. weakness in the u.s. dollar. greenback nearing an eight-month low against the euro and approaching fiscal cliff. slight uptick in home prices here in the u.s. also giving a boost to crude in wednesday's trade. of course now investors will be looking ahead to tomorrow's weekly inventory report. drawdowns of crude as well as -- supplies are expected and we are expecting an uptick in gasoline inventories. forecasts for last week. >> price of natural gas at the same time, we talked so much about this explosion, ability to get natural gas. how is that playing out? >> it is, you know, again, weather related. couple of things there. colder weather gives a lift to natural gas in that case. at the same time, supplies

expanding and they are counter-bailing force was natural gas at this point. >> mary thompson, thanks so much. few days ago cnbc host piers morgan appeared on "the kudlow report" to defend his strong and often nasty attacks on american gun laws. and that is sparking a backlash. a petition to have piers morgan deported is spreading like wildfire. it has enough signatures now because it is posted on the we the people website at whitehouse.gov the white house is compelled to make a statement bit. here now is caroline, political reporter to explain the whole thing. good to have you here. did the white house ever think that they were going to have to face a situation about a tv host being deported to the uk? >> mine, i didn't think so personally. who would have thought a cnn host for offering his off the deep end comments and a little odd but just important saying something he has gotten a lot of people very upset can we explain to people how it works? they have allowed people -- you

want to do a petition, do it right here with us at the white house. >> yes. >> and this petition has gotten more than any other petition that's ever been posted, it looks like. >> yes. well, three times the number of people have signed it that actually immediate to sign it in order for the white house to consider it. so -- in order for the white house to consider whatever -- think of it as a suggestion box for america. in order for the white house to consider your suggestion or comment there needs to be 25,000 people who have signed on. more than 75,000 people have signed on saying get rid of piers. >> there have been counter petitions as well, right? >> yes. actually, the best part about this -- i -- your heart goes out to poor piers. these are british citizens that have their petition saying we don't want piers to come back to the uk. quite a few british scitizens signed on saying we don't want him. please keep him in the united states and one of the petitions

is actually directed towards the uk government saying should the united states decide to demr. morgan, they should reject the deportation. have him stay somewhere in the atlantic, let him hang out there. but -- >> you said you -- you feel bad for piers morgan. you never feel bad for anybody on tv. we all bring it on ourselves. okay. he brought it on himself. any response from him today as a result of all of this stuff? >> he has been on twitter poking -- water off a duck's back, poking fun at it. he had a lot of people on twitter saying come to sierra leone, canada, come here. he wished everyone wishing his deportation a merry christmas the other day. >> he used to work in british tabloids. >> yes. >> i mean -- his skin must be made of kevlar, right? that's one of the dirtiest businesses out there. as we have learned in the last couple of years. >> absolutely. actually one of the petitions out on change.org was -- started

bay petitioner from great britain one of the whistle blowers in that -- this might be getting to in the weeds but one of the whistle blowers in the phone hacking scandal where piers morgan testified. it gets a little bit -- gets seedy. apparently there aren't a lot of british citizens that want him to come back. >> good to have you on. we are going to keep the gun control debate going because of the suburbs. one local paper deciding to change the addresses and images of the homes of thousands of legal gun permit holders. the paper says it was for public safety but seems like a public campaign to stigmatize people, she tried to say. we will debate that story next. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again.

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welcome back to "the kudlow report." in this half hour, at least one report says santa wasn't so generous this holiday season. this christmas. but not so fast. we haven't heard the last word yet on the retailers. and no one has heard any words from hillary clinton lately. the state department tells us

she is still recovering from the flu and concussion. but this isn't like her. is this her illness worse than we know? or is something else going on? first, though, the journal news is the newspaper for new york suburban westchester county. that paper is becoming the news all by itself after it decided to publish the names and addresses of all of the known gun permit holders in its readership area. the paper justifyding publication, the statement saying the massacre in newtown remains top of mind for many of our readers. in the past week conversation on our opinion pages and website has been focus order gun control. readers are understandably interested to know about guns in their neighborhoods. we obtained the names and addresses of westchester and rock land residents that are licensed to own handguns through routine freedom of information law public records request. here now is david, huffington post publisher blogger and lenny mccalter, contributor for the chicago defender.

good to have you here. lenny, nothing illegal here, right? how do you balance the right to publish, freedom of speech, versus outing a lot of people with guns who don't want everybody to know necessarily that they have guns? >> because the constitution also says that you are innocent until proven guilty. as well as the right to bear arms with the second amendment. therefore, i think that we ought to take a step back and i think this is an overreaction. generally speaking, we cannot assume had a just because you own a gun that you are capable or you have potential to commit that type of crime. again, you look at the assaults going on in america. lot of times they are stolen guns or people that just obviously are willing to break the law. we have to make sure that people that are innocent, people that are law-abiding citizens, and have a right to privacy, still can be able to enjoy that and not have this infringement upon them because of the tragedy that's happened and tragedies that happen every single day.

>> what they did was legal. you can get the position and newspapers can publish things that are public. still doesn't this stigmatize all gun owners that have their name published there? >> i can't see how something that's legal could stigmatize someone. and i would think that second amendment advocates would be applauding versus criticizing such a decision when there is an exercise of the constitutional right. there is a great deal of enthusiasm for the second amendment advocates behind the constitutional rights and i would think they are the first ones to applaud the action. >> you don't see anything. there is a terrible, horrendous massacre that devastated the country and broken all of our hearts and then publish, just within weeks the names of gun owners within their counties and you don't see that as a conflation of two very different things of a madman that lost control and people who have the legal right to own a gun and want to own a gun? this is the map that they published. you can go on their website and

this is the google map and click on each one of those red buttons, and see the names of the people that own guns in their readership area. that's not an effort to out them so to speak? >> well, i think that any time that public information is published in the public square by a responsible journalistic outlet, that the public only benefits by having more information to decide and that -- public policymakers, law make verse more information to decide. and so the public sometimes information is uncomfortable but when it is legal and contributes to a public debate and constructive way, then ultimately i think the public benefits at large. >> lenny what about the folks out there? what about women who were hiding from a man abusive to them and now have a gun, what about formal federal agents? what about members of the arm services? lot of people on this list who actually have very legitimate reasons to have a gun and now

have their address in the paper as well? >> you have that. you also have this. we are making it seem as though it was put out there and just information in a is that. no, we are putting it out there with a certain intent and guise to this. these are individuals that have the capability of harm harming us. this is a reaction to newtown. let's be fair about this. if you look at how this is -- transpired, you -- we are dealing with the society when you put stuff out in the media, it is usually guilty million proven innocent more often than not. usually there is a story and a spin and then the individuals whose names are not put out there and privacy is sacrificed and lot of times the facts are not put out there completely. now have to prove themselves innocent, whether it is a matter of owning a handg hanecause they are trying to protect themselves or anything else along those lines. we have seen that all the i'm. people have to pull the stories back, you see that on page 7 and not on page 1. >> let me ask you this. let's say this newspaper handed

out to whoever wanted them a poster or sign that wanted them, gun-free home, how many people would put it up, do you think, david? >> how many would put it up? from what -- my experience is gun owners are not bashful. they are out there constantly -- >> that wasn't my question. my question was -- if we handed out signs that said gun-free home how many people do you think would put it up? they wouldn't want to advertise they are a gun-free home, would they? why not? >> let's see, those who -- in the public -- if we understand the number of americans who have seem to own guns, 46% to 47% of the households, then that would leave the other majority who don't own them, then i'm going to pick 53% of the households happy to put a sign out that says this is a gun-free zone. >> lenny, what do you think? we handed out signs that said gun-free home. how many people would put them in their windows? >> there are people that have guns and say they don't have guns, same thing with alarms. in america the second amendment

provides you that opportunity. david is overlooking the fact that in illinois we have some of the toughest handgun laws in the nation. yet, you see shootings every single night on the south side and the west side of our dear chicago. what's been preventing that if we know who legally had guns, would that prevent illegal guns shooting and being involved in these crimes? absolutely not. this is an overreaction and jeopardizing privacy of law-abiding citizens unnecessarily. >> good to have you on and good discussion. much appreciated. enjoy the holiday season. >> happy holidays. >> thank you. >> market spent most of the day digesting news retail sales for christmas were disappointing. were those reports entirely correct? which retailers are looking good and whire looking worse in this environment here now is mary, managing director with merchant forecast. you are a secret shopper, right? do i understand that correctly? >> come on. we have a team across america and the team is comprised of retail professionals.

and they -- monitor stores across -- >> shop for a live. >> they shop for a living. it is a tough life. yes. they -- answer questions for us and compile the data and we publish our reports. >> the numbers that came out today were disappointing. we have now seen retail stocks fall for three days in a row because this holiday season is looking bad. is it that bad? >> it was going into last friday. and -- again, we cover the mall. going into last friday, everybody was panicked. because they weren't seeing the kind of retail -- >> retailers were panic. >> yes. those days before christmas, it spurred up. whether it pulls out the month is another store write. it looks promising for particular retailers. we have some -- we have some bright spots out there. cosmetics is great. we love ulta. lululemon setting the trend for all of that. >> two of my faves so par. >> costume jewelry, shoes,

michael kors, we love. they are unstoppable. we have some things that are very positive. >> the slowdown that we saw going into -- you yourself saw, what was the cause? >> the hurricane. the fiscal cliff. yes, people know what the fiscal cliff is outside of this arena. and the third is unseasonably warm weather. >> what about newtown? did that -- >> hard for us -- it had to have. i mean -- that's not something that we can monitor but common sense indicates -- retailers are saying that oh, my god, it did impact us. why not? and that wasp just in the northeast. that was across america. >> right. >> it was devastating. put them all together and it was challenge. >> i bet it made a lot of parents rethink material. >> absolutely. one would think. yes. >> now what? even if you see a pickup in sales afterwards everything has been discounted. this is not that good anymore. >> it is not as bad as you think. a lot of the discounts with retailers was planned.

they planned it before they even went into the season. and it depends, too. now, the week after christmas -- >> my point is if -- the sweater full price before christmas, and now you del stay purchase and you buy it 75% off after christmas, it is a lower margin. >> yes. absolutely. but some of these retailers plan discounts into the margin. did they plan 75 off? i don't think so. no. sweaters and outer wear were challenged for the reasons i just gave, particularly the weather. those would categories. >> it was warm. >> it was warm. >> until today. yes. the week after christmas has become increasingly important. again, is it enough to pull out the month? we shall see. gift cards are also very important this week. there's a lot going on. and -- they are hopeful that they are not expecting what they thought they would get two mo h months ago. >> walmart told us they surveyed their shoppers a week before christmas. >> yes. >> 25% new. before the election.

excuse me. >> yes. >> fiscal cliff week after the election. 75%. >> yes. >> it was on everybody's mind. >> great. thank you so much. >> thank you so much. >> i want to shop for a living, too. >> please. >> come join us thanks to mary. all right. so not a banner year for retail. we have fiscal cliff and debt ceiling fears. that's driving that. how do you invest now? we are about to ask a top money manager. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move

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it helps to have people around you... they say, you're much bigger than this. and you are. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. it is crunch time. three trading days left in 2012. no fiscal cliff dealing in sight. now we are talking about hitting the debt ceiling on december 31. what are the top trades for 2013? cnbc contributor michael farr. good to see you. great to have you here. >> thanks, michelle. wonderful to be with you. >> have you heard about what timothy geithner said tonight? >> you are way better looking than kudlow. i know you heard that. this is a much better screen to look at from our glide flattery will get you everywhere. did you hear secretary geithner sent out a note saying that -- letter, official letter saying we are going to hit the debt ceiling monday. lee business days notice.

>> perfect. >> what will that do to the markets tomorrow? >> you and i talked about this is a couple of years ago when we hit hit it in july and i was dead wrong. i was entirely dead wrong. i thought congress would make sure we wouldn't lose our aaa debt rate. >> and we did. >> and -- yeah. i figured certainly logically that yields would go up on bonds. and that the stock market would fall and just the opposite happening. what happen this time to the markets still have patience. you know, rinehart talk about that bang moment when countries are able to continue to issue really cheap debt for a long, long time. sounding like forever and boom. it stops. i don't think that will be this moment. but sooner or later, the world's financing capability and -- intentions and -- stop. >> what do you do right now? i think a lot of people who were watching don't understand necessarily what impact hitting the debt ceiling would necessarily mean to them or to the nation's finance.

personally, i think there is a lot of pier mongering in washington and i don't think it is necessarily that big of a deal. what do you do with your finances right here? what are you investing in? >> we continue to invest in these blue chip companies. ones with really solid balance sheets. you know, if it is boring it is good, really. it has to be your kind of way to invest right now. and stay defensive. >> can you give me a maim? give me a name. >> i have a bunch of names. family dollar is -- on the low end of retail. we saw a lot of retailers get hit today but particularly the high end. the coaches and tiffany's got hit. low end we think will see a migration of more dollars trying to affordability. cognizant in the i.t. space. fabulous company. growing earnings. and doing services and building software. fedex growing again. returning to a little bit of global recovery there. you know, out on the edge i con -- well, awfully good.

awfully good company. i will go to my on the edge. chipotle, you know, i -- my -- my kids, particularly my 20-year-old son robert and his buddies, they live on this stuff. it is remarkable. >> as i do. >> they are not going to taco bell. that was -- you know, that's been the knock. taco bells, fresh, not going to happen. chipotle. >> why do you say -- if you know people that eat the food, michael why do you say the stock is on the edge? >> no, no, no. i think it is edgy because it is riskier. it is a higher p/e stock, much higher growth. >> higher p/e stock for the viewer who doesn't understand that means it is really expensive, right? you are spending a lot of money for every dollar of profits they make. there are other quote, unquote, cheaper stocks out there. you are saying -- chipotle is an expensive stock for what it is doing now. still you like it. >> i'm saying that -- it is expensive in terms of the earnings you are getting today.

the earnings are growing faster than the average company. mcdonald's thaernsings growth is much cheaper for dlar of earnings but not growing the earnings as quickly. chipotle growing earnings. more should drive the price, share price higher as a result of that p/e. it is -- it is a little bit riskier and edgesier for me. not my normal johnson & johnson. but you know, we put this whole list out today. it is on our website. it is free. and -- so we are happy to send it to you with all of our -- i think that you have to invest in these ballot sheet stocks. washington will screw this up. >> that doesn't surprise me. michael, have a great holiday. thanks for the lemon cake. for those of that don't know michael sing an evil man. pet we get fat because of it at christmas time. good to see you. >> you, too. happy new year. >> we can be bought with lemon cake here at cnbc. all right. since when does hillary clinton shy away from the spotlight? since now. it has been days since we were told she is recovering from a

concussion and the flu. still no sign of her or any word either. we will look closer at this unusual situation.

welcome back to "the kudlow report." massive winter storm. it is blasting the northeast. paul goodloe has the late rest again, this storm means business. again, we are dealing with tornadoes yesterday on christmas day across south. at the same time, dealing with

record-setting snow for little rock, over nine inches of snow. now this storm continues to move across the ohio valley and now we are seeing a new low develop out on towards the atlantic and that definitely has plenty in terms of where we will see rain and snow. right now we are still seeing that warmer air bringing that rain right across the northeast and new york city, you saw a lot of snow today. then as -- it is doing now, changing over and mixing with rain. take a look at our forecast. again, this goes through this evening, still watching the rain pushing into long island and new york. some of the suburbs, westchester county and white plains, you are seeing snow. boston, you are starting to see some of that snow mixed with rain. on the back side, cold air is -- we are cranking on this snow. let's move the forecast forward into the overnight hours. and we are still dealing with a lot of heavy snow across western new york and areas of pennsylvania and vermont and new hampshire. look at this. the rain continues to move out of new york but still across connecticut, rhode island, boston. we could see maybe one, maybe even two inches of rain, snow

continues with cold air coming around. we are still watching more snow and then we get the great lakes involved and as well. dumping more snow in western new york. and by that time, new york city, you might see a few flurries. the worst of it is gone for you except the wind but now northern new england, parts of it, maine corks see a foot plus the snow coming through there. all of this, rain, the wind and snow, that will impact travel. as we head lou tonight some of the worst airports this evening will be around d.c. and as well as philadelphia and new york, numerous delays. hundreds of cancelations of pilots and usually -- about a would-hour delay is average around the new york city airports tonight. and even with the snow back on towards the west. now tomorrow, new york city is -- improving throughout the afternoon but morning pilots cog still be delayed and big-time delays continue there in boston and again, things will improve as we head towards friday and then we wait for a next storm coming out of the west now to bring rain and snow to the northeast. >> all right. thank you, paul. paul goodloe from the weather channel. now a series of health issues have kept secretary of state

hillary clinton so far out of the spotlight that we haven't seen or heard from her in two weeks. is this because of her upcoming benghazi testimony? not yet scheduled or is it something else? what's the story here? is she really sick or about avoiding ben gaz write? >> i'm not going to question her health. she has been sick for two weeks. missed the hearing on benghazi. view lot of republicans at capitol hill pressuring her. once she is well to come and testify about what happened in libya. >> is she one to back down from a situation like that? i don't think so. >> i doubt it. she sunday so much pressure that republicans now are even talking about postponing john kerry's nomination process for secretary of state until clinton testifies. this is going to be a real issue next month when congress is back. >> you could understand why she would be hesitant considering what happened with the previous person who was trying to be secretary of state. right? i mean, this is -- this is a minefield she walking into. >> what makes had situation so much -- there's been an

independent report about what happened in benghazi. according to the report about the state department's actions will were systemic failure to republicans and democrats of capitol hill asking questions. what caused the systemic failures? does the buck stop with hillary clinton? no one is sure yet but will have to come and testify and was scheduled to testify. it is not about whether she wants to or is willing to. it is when she will reschedule now due to her health. >> at the same time, i mean a lot of people had commented before she had taken this time off or before gotten sick. she had not been looking well. the travel had been obviously extremely hard on her. >> that's right. she did take a lot -- long foreign trip. now she has been out of the picture, though, since december 15. the question is when is she going to come back and when is she going to answer these questions? >> what are the questions going to be? more of the same? >> well, the big thing -- bigger picture here is not only when she comes back due to her health, what's this mean for her 2016 political aspirations? lot of people think hillary clinton wants to run for

president. a lot of people think she has done a good job at the state department, even conservatives. benghazi episode from september hangs over her entire tenure like a cloud. so if she runs, she will have to answer tough questions about what happened. >> there was a time you never would have said this but hillary clinton, a lot more popular personally on capitol hill than rice ever was. right? lot of rice's problems was she had burned so many bridges. >> susan rice -- she -- her whole chance of it being -- secretary of state i-floundered because of how benghazi was handled by the obama administration and handled by the state department. >> i think it was lot more than that. it was a long history of not getting along with john mccain and the moment he had the option, he used it. >> that's exactly right. i think -- hillary clinton iss trying to avoid entering into the susan rice situation where she is under pyre on capitol hill. for now the -- will keep the questions at bay. but come january, when she gets asked to come back to capitol hill, she will have to enter

into this situation and answer the questions on capitol hill or else she will risk having a susan rice situation where she gets battered from -- >> put this aside. does she run and could she be a moderate republican? >> i think hillary clinton scares every single republican contender who is thinking about 2016 because if you looked at the primaries she won in 2008, she was winning rustbelt states and winning purple states. she is a real threat to the republican party if they are looking to rebound in four years. >> all right. good to see you. ty. >> thank you. so good to have you join us. i will be here the rest of the week. that's it for tonight's show. i will be back with you tomorrow. until then, thanks so much for watching "the kudlow report." [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again.

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